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News coverage - John C. Kirk

Sep. 10th, 2008

12:39 am - News coverage

Topical advice from the novel Wizards at War: "At times like this, you can pay too much attention to the news. Either they'll blow up the world or they won't. Meantime, our job is to get on with life."

I'm not worried about the Hadron Collider, even though some people think that it's likely to cause the end of the world. I don't know enough Physics to fully understand what they're doing, and I can't influence them even if they are wrong, so there's no point worrying about it. If it all goes smoothly, I'll be interested to read about the results (translated into layman's terms).

I have a similar attitude towards US politics, e.g. all the coverage about which candidates are being chosen for the upcoming election. If I was going to vote then I'd try to be informed, but since I can't I'll just wait to see who wins. In theory I could try to influence people who are voting, but since I've never been to the USA there's no reason for them to listen to me, and I don't have time to spend on endless internet debates.

It's not just an American thing; the most pointless "Have your say" debate I've seen so far was this one: Who will win the London mayoral elections? This debate was started after the polls had closed, so nothing that people said would have any influence over the outcome. Why waste time predicting the result? Just wait and see!

And on that note I'm going to bed; I'm off work this week on annual leave, so I have plenty of things to get on with, rather than worrying about events I can't control.